This early print that Josef Frank first called Tulipan, was later remade to suit the new printing technique that was coming into use in the 1940s. With this change, the print was no longer rotated, but instead built upon a repetition of rectangles. The new print, which was also in a different colour scheme, was called Mille Fleurs, the French translation for A Thousand Flowers.
Read more about screen printing in Svenskt Tenn's magazine.
Designer
Josef Frank
Josef Frank grew up in Vienna and studied architecture at Technische Hochschule (the Vienna University of Technology) in 1903 – 1908. In the 1920s he designed housing estates and large residential blocks built around common courtyards in a Vienna with severe housing shortages. In 1925, he founded the Haus & Garten interior firm together with architect colleague Oskar Wlach. Svenskt Tenn hired Josef Frank in 1934 and just a few years later he and Estrid Ericson made their international breakthrough. Although he was already 50 when he left the burgeoning Nazism in Vienna for Sweden, Frank is considered one of Sweden’s most important designers. Read more